Case of Souroullas-Zannettos v. Cyprus
The European Court of Human Rights published on Tuesday its judgment in the case of Souroullas and Zannettos v. Cyprus, ruling that there had been no violation of the right to a fair trial and the right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense.
According to an announcement by the Court today, the case concerned the conviction of the first applicant for money laundering and the second applicant for extortion in connection with a land deal.
It is reported that a key part of the testimony had been the testimony of N.L., a real estate businessman and owner of the football team ALKI Larnaca, who had been granted immunity from criminal prosecution after he had given testimony involving, inter alia, the applicants.
It is noted that the Court found that the trial had not been prejudiced by the inclusion of N.L.'s testimony, as the domestic courts had been careful in their treatment of that testimony , while there were other confirmations available.
It is added regarding the request of the applicants to examine the copy of the hard drives of N.L. by the prosecution to prove aiding and abetting, that the Court was satisfied that the national courts had heard the argument on the matter and rejected the request with reasoned decisions, noting that the applicants' arguments in this context were entirely hypothetical, the statement concluded.
